We lived there when I was 11 and used to take visitors there whenever they came to town, so I probably went two or three times a month. There is an amazing museum surrounding the shallow square reflecting pool containing paintings that made quite an impression on me at the time. They depict the martyrdom of the various gurus and are quite, um, shall we say vivid?

Operation Blue Star was an Indian military operation which occurred between 3 June and 8 June 1984, ordered by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in order to establish control over the Harmandir Sahib Complex in Amritsar, Punjab, and remove Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed followers from the complex buildings. Bhindranwale had earlier taken residence in Harmandir Sahib and made it his headquarters in April 1980. The operation had two components—Operation Metal, confined to the Harmandir Sahib c...

Gatka (Punjabi: ਗਤਕਾ gatkā) is a traditional South Asian form of combat-training in which wooden sticks are used to simulate swords in sparring matches. In modern usage, it commonly refers to the northwestern Indian martial arts, which should more properly be called shastara vidiyā (ਸ਼ਸਤਰ ਵਿਦਿਆ, from Sanskrit sastra-vidya or "science of weapons"). In English, the terms gatka and shastar vidya are very often used specifically in relation to Panjabi-Sikhs. In actuality, the art is not unique to Ga...

I already read about what happened in 1984 - but this incident seemed to stem from internal arguing on who was going to speak about the 84 event.

And while their swords were patterned off of real sabers, it's still possible they were dress copies. My grandfather's Coast Guard sabre is patterned after a real fighting sabre, but it isn't sharp. While I wouldn't want to be whacked with it, it would take some real work to draw blood.

You're right. Although at least two-thirds of the US BoN team are SCA guys.

It seems to me that those guys at the temple are fighting each others' swords, not each others' bodies. There's a pretty significant difference, as demonstrated by the clip I posted in response - I'm pretty sure those Sikh are trying to drive each other away, and not hurt each other.

And the Sikh swords are almost certainly "real" but with rounded edges, like the BoN ones, which have an edge profile shaped like the curve of a euro coin, or a US nickel. Still demonstrably capable of chopping off fingers, and thus meeting the requirement of baptised Sikhs to always be armed, but much safer for flailing around with in a crowd.